Firebacks

Description: Rectangular with furniture-derived mounding (top and sides); double-loop 'lens' pattern stamp repeated inside the moulded edging nine times along the top and three times down each side; top left, initials RBD in triad; right of top centre, date 1602; top right, initials RT split between two repeated dog stamps; four other dog stamps in pairs below, and one below date; becapped human figure stamp, with his left arm raised to his head and his right arm akimbo, repeated four times below initial triad and two singly, one below lone dog stamp and one centre right; top centre, stamp of a crest formed of a stag 'lodged' (i.e. sitting) upon a wreath, in this instance only with pseudo legs drawn below, also repeated six times in two rows of three left of lower centre, with one to the left of the six; 'renaissance' shield bearing initials 'IE' linked with twisted cord, repeated lower left and right with a third bottom centre impressed partially over the centremost stag crest.

Notes: A fireback remarkable for the haphazard arrangement of groups of seemingly unrelated stamps. Acquired in 1900 by Sir Spencer Maryon-Wilson for Charlton House (Country Life, 23 April 1904, from whence has come the illustration); several of the stamps have been noted on two other firebacks, both dated 1617, and suggesting by their location an origin in the Horsham area of the Weald.

Inscription: R B D [triad] 1602 R T / IE IE / IE

Description: Rectangular; low-relief moulded edging along top, then down sides; double-looped 'lens' pattern stamp repeated six times across the top, inside the edging and, rotated, three times down each side; becapped human figure stamp, with his left arm raised to his head and his right arm akimbo, repeated in each top corner; between these, 'IE' monogram with continuous loop between the letters repeated five times, two in line above and three below, the centre one slightly raised; the date between the top two; a lifting handle on each side.

Notes: Said to have been at Horsham, Sussex; on another fireback, at the Old Manor, Upper Beeding in Sussex, cast with the same stamps, and also dated 1617, the monogram stamp is clearly carved on a 'renaissance' shield, indicating that in this instance the stamps were not impressed as deeply. Drawing by J. Lewis André in the J. Starkie Gardner Collection, Victoria & Albert Museum, Archive of Art and Design (AAD/2014/8). Possibly the fireback referred to by Lewis André in 1882 as belonging to a Miss Alman, of East Street, Horsham (Sussex Archaeological Collections XXXII, p.76).

Inscription: IE 1617 IE / IE IE IE